Manos: The Hands of Fate
I consider myself something of a connoisseur of horrible movies. From Plan 9 From Outer Space to Santa Claus Conquers the Martians to Troll 2, I derive a certain masochistic joy from watching an atrocious film with a group of equally disgusted friends. One movie, however, unquestionably stands out as the worst film ever made. From the first ten minutes of watching a family drive around in the Texas countryside to the question mark at “The End?,” Manos: The Hands of Fate never ceases to appall. Let’s read some details from IMDB:
PLOT SUMMARY:
A family driving through a small town gets lost and winds up at a backwoods shack managed by Torgo, who takes care of it while The Master is away. The Master worships Manos, an evil deity, and he also wears a neat cape. When Torgo lets the family stay, The Master awakens and does mean stuff like burning off Torgo’s hand and sicking his dog on the family pet. Meanwhile, The Master’s wives wrestle for his favor.
GOOFS:
- At the beginning, when the family pulls over, and after Mike says his line, he mouths the word “Cut!”
- When Michael and his family are attacked by the snake, the stock footage of the snake was obviously filmed in broad daylight, even though the characters are surrounded by the dead of night.
- Throughout the movie, the zipper on the master’s back is clearly visible.
TRIVIA:
- Filmed entirely with a handheld camera that could only record thirty-two seconds of film at a time. The film was shot without sound; all the lines were later dubbed by only three people – two men and one woman. The little girl who plays Debbie cried when she first heard her dubbed voice.
- The real reason John Reynolds (Torgo) appears to have big knees and walks funny is because his character is supposed to be a satyr. Reynolds designed his own prosthetics to make himself look like he had goat’s feet. (Note how the wife gasps when she first looks down his feet, which the viewer does not get to see.)
- John Reynolds, who played Torgo, sustained permanent damage to his kneecaps because of the apparatus on them. He was constantly on painkillers up until his suicide, due to the injury he had from this movie. It’s believed that his kneecaps were damaged due to the device being worn backwards.
- The movie was given a gala premiere in El Paso upon its release, and many local dignitaries were on hand. Part way into the film, members of the audience began heckling it. Many of the film’s cast and crew sneaked out of the theater before the film ended to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit being part of it.
- IMDB
So if you’d like to watch a film so bad that it made the little girl who acted in it cry when she saw it, you certainly can’t do worse than Manos.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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